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Connect 2013
Our national youth leaders training weekend in 2013 will be at Silverstream Retreat Centre, Wellington
It is going to be a fantastic weekend of networking with youth leaders from around NZ, training and equipping for youth ministry, and a weekend of being challenged and inspired in your relationship with God.
Connect is for Youth leaders or elders and ministers who are working with young people from Presbyterian and Uniting Churches. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or are a long serving vocational leader, there will be something for you.
General Info
Standard Accommodation
$170 Standard Registration (20 April – 20 June)
$200 Late Registration (21 June – 12 July)
Motel / Studio Accommodation
$380 per married couple
Price includes meals on Saturday and Sunday, accommodation, programme and airport shuttle if needed. If you would like Pizza on the Friday evening, there is an additional $6 cost.
Bring
Bible, pen, notepad, sleeping bag, towel, toiletries, and spending money for resources, coffee/ hot chocolate. Words of encouragement for others.
The Theme – Sustainable Youth Ministry
Youth ministry is a rewarding area to be involved in. But sometimes it is just hard going. Best practise in youth ministry does not create booms and busts, it is not dependant on one ‘superstar’ person, yet so often this is a reality that results in youth workers burning out.
This year’s theme, Sustainable Youth Ministry explores practices that enable us to endure and stick around for the long haul as youth workers that remain passionate about young people. Sustainable youth ministry produces fruit that lasts in our own lives and in the lives of young people.
Sustainable Youth Ministry is about youth ministry that endures and thrives because it is being supported and maintained by the whole church and by having good systems and structures in place.
Our keynote speakers, Mike, Rod, Sala and Mark, have been and still are involved in sustainable ministry. Mike, Rod, and Sala will share about things they have learnt along the way that have sustained them in youth work as well as insights and practical advice that creates a youth ministry that is sustainable. Mark will curate the final main gathering on Sunday as we engage in two sources that sustain us in the faith; word and communion.
Mike King
Biography
Serves as President of Youthfront, a Youth Ministry organization. Youthfront works to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where spiritual transformation occurs, by working with those who are involved in the spiritual formation of youth and by providing church-assisting events. Youthfront provides programs, services, resources and training.
Mike recently completed his second M.A., this one in Theological Studies: Christian History and Thought. Mike is an Adjunct Professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary. He serves as the Executive Editor of Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry. Mike is a co-founder and Chair of the Board of The Wild Goose Festival.
Interests
Enjoys family, traveling, reading, history, music, art, movies, sports, scuba diving and running. He is an active member at Jacob’s Well and his local community.
Sala Tiatia
Biography
Sala is a NZ-Born Samoan who has blood lines directly to The Rock, Sonny Bill Williams and Denzel Washington.
Born and raised in the streets of Otara, South Auckland doing youth work and Pastoring there – to youth work in the streets of Cannons Creek running the Porirua Alternative School also running Youth Work workshops around NZ, Pacific Islands and Australia, and now running a couple of Alternative Schools in Christchurch.
He is married to a beautiful Maori queen that is of Tuhoe and Taranaki descent and they have a beautiful princess together to go with their other 5 talented children.
Sala’s title for his key note is:
“I’m Bringing Sexy Back”
(Bringing the YOU back in YOUth work)
How to sustain passion and desire to your youth work without getting burnout and quitting.
Mark Pierson
Biography
Mark Pierson has pastored Baptist Churches in New Zealand for much of the last 30 years and continues to be an accredited Baptist minister. He has been described variously as “a Gen-Xer in a sagging Boomer body”, “an innovative founding member of the alternative worship movement”, “the godfather of curation in worship”, and “a depressed melancholic cynic”.
After 12 years of being pastor and worship curator with the innovative inner city Auckland congregation, Cityside Baptist Church, he crossed the ditch to join Urban Seed, a missional community building relationships with marginalised people in downtown Melbourne.
He currently works with World Vision in New Zealand on church relationships and spiritual nurture of staff.
In 2000 SPCK published a book and interactive CDROM co-authored by Mark and two friends. The Prodigal Project: journey into the emerging church. It reflects Mark’s passion to find new ways of worship that sustain followers of Jesus and engage those on the fringes of churches and beyond.
His Master of Ministry (MCD) research was into the way people respond to art in a Christian context, particularly contemporary Stations of the Cross.
December 2010 saw The Art of Curating Worship: reshaping the role of worship leader published by Sparkhouse, an imprint of Augsburg Fortress Press.
Interests
Mark is married to Robyn, has four adult children and four grandchildren.
Rod Baxter
Biography
Rod Baxter is a youth worker with Wellington Boys’ and Girls’ Institute (BGI), a youth development organisation founded in 1883 by young people in partnership with St John’s in the City. He has enjoyed journeys with St John’s youth group, chairing the National Youth Workers Network Aotearoa and helped found Ara Taiohi in 2010.
Rod’s current focuses within the BGI kaupapa are a group of young leaders called ‘Link’ and a crew of emerging street artists painting murals in alleyways. He’s also teaching youth work students at WelTec’s Bachelor of Youth Development group work and youth participation in social change.
Interests
Rod loves: trim flat whites, the Code of Ethics, Cuba St, X-Men comics, supervision, facilitation, his diary, Scrabble, parallel relationships, pranks, fancy pens, brunch, learning new things and creative ways of working.
We are currently building this list, as workshops are confirmed.
Workshops by Streams
Nuts and Bolts
Time Management – Gordon Fitch
Youth Ministry
Building on the strengths of our young people – Julia Hennessy
Ministry to Young Adults – Carlton Johnstone
The Teen: What’s Going on inside – Matt Chamberlin
Youth culture as Resistance? – Carlton Johnstone
Spiritual Practices
Presence Centered Youth Ministry – Mike King
Worship
The Art of Curating Worship: why bother? – Mark Pierson
The Art of Curating Worship: what might it look like in practice? - Mark Pierson
Embodied worship – Malcolm Gordon
Worship or mission? - Malcolm Gordon
Leadership
Growing Young Leaders – Jill Kayser
Leadership for Change – Martin Baker
Never Call them Jerks – Kevin Ward
Missional Community
Kaleidoscopic Ministry – Kevin Ward
Biblical /Theology
Gospel and the Treaty – Mark Grace
Youth Ministry & Theology – Mike King
Silverstream Retreat Centre
3 Reynolds Bach Drive, Lower Hutt 5014, Wellington
Silverstream Retreat is located midway between Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt cities, and 25 minutes drive to downtown Wellington.
Standard Accommodation
$150 Early Bird Registration (1 Feb – 19 April)
$170 Standard Registration (20 April – 20 June)
$200 Late Registration (21 June – 12 July)
Motel Accommodation
$380 per married couple
Draft Schedule
Time
- Friday
- 4pm
- 5pm
- 6pm
- 7:30pm
- 9:30pm
- 10pm
- Saturday
- 7am
- 7:30am
- 8:30am
- 10am
- 10:30am
- 11:30am
- 12:30pm
- 1:30pm
- 3:30pm
- 4:30pm
- 6pm
- 7:30pm
- 9:30pm
- 10pm
- Sunday
- 7:30am
- 8:30am
- 9:30am
- 10:30am
- 11am
- 12pm
Activity
- -
- Registration
- Bonus Workshops
- Dinner Break
- Keynote
- Supper
- Optional Prayer
- -
- Optional Prayer
- Breakfast
- Keynote
- Morning Tea
- Workshop 1
- Workshop 2
- Lunch
- Freetime
- Workshop 3
- Workshop 4
- Dinner
- Keynote
- Supper
- Optional Prayer
- -
- Worship Service
- Communion Breakfast
- Workshop 5
- Morning Tea
- Workshop 6
- Lunch
Wellington Airport Shuttle
We will be providing a courtesy bus shuttle from Airport to Silverstream Retreat Centre running from 12 noon to 6pm on the 19 July, and then returning to airport after the event on 21 July.
We will not be able to provide a service outside of these hours.
To use this service you must register by 12 July.
South Island Travel Subsidies
Flying from the south Island? We have 55 travel subsidies, on a first come first served basis.
$50- flying out of Christchurch or north
$80- flying out south of Christchurch
To request one email [email protected] Max of 5 per church.
Registration is Open
There is a $50 non-refundable deposit due immediately on registration.
There is no refund of full payment if you pull out two weeks before Connect starts
Married Couples Registration [SOLD OUT]